Wedded to Segregation

Hello friends,

As some of you know, I spent a few days in Panama in early March. It was a phenomenal trip in many ways. In part, that was because of much needed rest and a social media sabbatical. But it was also because I got to see one of the modern wonders of the world, the Panama Canal, and to find out more about its history.

One of the reasons I'm talking about it here is because there's a history of colonialism that runs alongside its creation - both ancient and modern. At the Canal itself, a video narrated by Morgan Freeman tells of the efforts by many people, mainly Spanish, to create a throughway so they wouldn't have to go the treacherous long way round past Tierra del Fuego to get to the other side of the world. And while it was a story of exploration for sure, I couldn't help but be struck by the complete lack of care for the Indigenous inhabitants of the time.

Dipping Into the History of the Panama Canal

But that wasn't the worst bit. A couple days later we went to the Panama Canal Museum in Casco Viejo, the city's old town (why it's not at the Canal itself, I'll never know). There were a couple of floors of fascinating exhibits, but the section that resonated with me most was about the early days of building the Canal. It gave new insight to what I already thought I knew.